4.6 Lucie Lavoie’s peace & plenty

This is the script brought to the mic to record after the conversation with Lucie was recorded and edited. 

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I’m Heather McLeod, welcome to season four, episode five of Something Different This Way Comes

Today’s conversation was recorded in Lucie Lavoie and Ken Deacon’s dining room

Mostly with Lucie, though Ken pops in to talk about beans for a bit

And we were feasting on Ken’s bean dip as we chat

Lucie had not only agreed to this chat on tape, she welcomed me with mint tea from her garden, thin slices of homemade bread and the bean dip, with a cake baking in the oven to boot

I’ve known Lucie about twenty years. 

At first through work, when I was a CBC and she was across the street at Eco Superior.

Then we were in the same bookclub for over a decade

She is a friend - the trickiest part of editing this recording for you was managing all the times our laughter just range out and taxed my wee microphone.

Lucie is easy company.

But I don’t know how much she realizes what an inspiration and a mentor she’s been to me as well. 

Since I met her I’ve gone from naive flower gardener to someone who eats food I’ve grown year-round. And very often applies advice I’ve gathered from Lucie when it comes to growing and keeping food. 

That’s what she’s prepared to talk about at the Northwest Climate Gathering this weekend.

I hope you’re coming, or register now to join us virtually through the link I’ll include in the episode notes.

So once we’d settled with our tea & our bean dip, I asked her how she got to be so garden-savvy

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So Ken left us - and I want to take a moment to do two things.

First to imagine Lucie’s vision. Of a Thunder Bay where lawns have become a rarity, 

reserved for sports fields and such.

Instead our streets are lined with not just trees but boreal forest, full of wild life

And every backyard bursts with food gardens.

It inspired the chorus of the song I just wrote you

It’s called Lucie’s Vision:

(A maj) Front yards full of (E maj) all that is wild

(A maj) Back yards burning with (E maj) food, it beguiles

(D maj) Children playing, Neighbours (E maj) saying

How (D maj) good it (E maj) is living (A maj) here

How (D maj) good it (E maj) is living (A maj) here

What a vision Lucie has.

I’ll give you the whole song in a bit.

But first, the other thing I want to take this moment to underline 

Is how hard it is to grow food. 

Even with savvy and education and parents to learn from and years to practice,

 the learning curve is steep.

Which is why Lucie has such respect for farmer’s, especially those who don’t use chemicals, like Organic farmers.

It’s hard - and it’s SO valuable. Pretty much everything comes after food, when it comes to what’s really important.

And growing food is hard.

So mentorship is such a gift.

And I consider Lucie and Ken Mentors. 

Though they never took me on like Mr. Miyagi in the Karate Kid, 

with one on one lessons of any kind. 

If ever I had a question I always knew I was welcome to ask. 

I remember they once came out to the farm here and helped us try to graft apple trees.

So kind.

But mostly I learned from Lucie in casual conversation, 

when she was doing what would prompt me to do the same, 

I’d ask how she does things and imitate and emulate 

and learn, learn, learn. 

Not just about gardening but also about keeping your harvest so you can eat it 

until next year’s harvest, or at least for much longer than your average grocery-store carrot. That’s a real learning curve too. Daunting on your own. 

When I first got into gardening I bought three big old books on organic gardening 

and put them in the bathroom where I dipped into them often.

Which was a start. But not nearly as organic as having friends to learn with.

Learning feels good. So does teaching. 

And so does the hard work of gardening.

Which brings me back to Lucie:

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Lucie Lavoie and her husband Ken Deacon have been growing most of what they eat

In their backyard in Thunder Bay, for almost forty years

They’ll be sharing tips and happy to meet new people who share their passion for the planet

At the Northwest Climate Gathering this weekend

And I hope to see you there

Check out the link I’ll put in the show notes

Now here is the song I wrote just now

In it’s entirety

I call it: Lucie’s Vision

Chorus:

(A maj) Front yards full of (E maj) all that is wild

(A maj) Back yards bursting with (E maj) food, it beguiles

(D maj) Children playing, Neighbours (E maj) saying

How (D maj) good it (E maj) is living (A maj) here

How (D maj) good it (E maj) is living (A maj) here

Verse one:

(E maj) I go to the garden

(A maj) I stand in the trees

(E maj) Look up at my pole beans

(A maj) Dig toes in the soil

(D maj) Feel (E maj) hurt (A maj) heal

It brings such (D maj)

It (E maj) brings such (A maj) peace

Verse two:

I’m growing the soil

& I’m helping the wild

Connecting to eart

Feeding my soul

Carbon Captured

It feels so good

It feels so good

Verse three:

It is so elegant

It’s so powerful

Doing good, doing well

Forest out front

Food out back

It brings me peace

It brings me (A maj) peace

It feels so (D maj) good

It (E maj) feels so (A maj) good

That’s Lucie’s Vision.

And that’s it for this episode.

I won’t have a new episode for you next week

But I will have an episode after all.

I’m going to post anew the conversation I had with Brendan Grant back in my first season early last year.

Brendan and his wife Marcelle own Sleepy G Farm

Which is the only certified organic farm anywhere near Thunder Bay

And a community supported agriculture farm too.

Brendan is also one of the people informing and leading discussions

At the Northwest Climate Gathering

He will be focusing on an idea he launched in that podcast last year

So I think that’s worth a repeat. I know you’ll enjoy that conversation

And I am so glad you listened today

I invite you to visit www.SomethingDifferentThisWayComes.ca

Where you can join my newsletter, sent once weekly during each season with behind the scene stories and breaking news

And all of the more than three dozen episodes of the show I’ve made so far

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My name is Heather McLeod and this is my one-woman show.

I book the guests, I write the script, I compose and perform the music, I check the facts

Every error and opinion is my own. 

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